COCHABAMBA
Cochabamba, known as the food capital of Bolivia. Every local we spoke to mentioned how good the food was in Cochabamba and we agree. The city itself is beautiful with parks and plazas to explore and museums and historical buildings to immerse yourself in. Not as many tourists visit Cochabamba and skip straight back to La Paz but we loved it.
How to get there
From Sucre | A night bus will get you in to Cochabamba at 5am in the morning, leaving at a 9pm. There are not many companies that go to Cochabamba it’s either Trans Copacabana, Trans Bolivar or 6 de Octubre. A cama seat (a fully reclining chair and the comfiest option) with Trans Copacabana cost 105Bs (£12.30)
From La Paz | The journey takes around 7 hours and can be done in the day time, we went with Trans Bolívar for this leg and a cama seat cost 50Bs (£5.90) each.
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Where to stay
Running Chaski Hostel | The backpackers head to The Running Chaski Hostel it has dorms, private’s and breakfast included. Prices are reasonable at £9 a night for a dorm room with breakfast. It’s in a good location with the main Plaza a ten minute walk away. Restaurants are dotted all over the city and you are never too far away from a good one.
Lyra | We stayed at Lyra in an apartment with a small kitchenette and utensils, fridge and a seating area. The room was huge and spotless and for £17 a night we couldn’t of been happier. It is in an unmanned residential block If you arrive on a night bus you probably won’t be able to check in until 1pm with nowhere to store your bags.
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What to do
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Stroll in the Park
Parque Familiar is a large green space with water fountains all around and a nice place to wander and cool off. They also have a light show at night, times are displayed at the entrance to the park. You do have to pay to get in, entrance is 8Bs (£0.95) and if you are there on a Monday it will be closed, which we found out the hard way.
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Check out the Views
Cristo de la Concordia is the second largest Jesus Christ statue in the world after Christ the Redeemer and it offers some great views over the city. Entrance is free and it is always open. You can get a taxi for around 12Bs (£1.40) or take the cable car from Autonomia Park for 13Bs (£1.50).
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Where to Eat & Drink
So what should you do in the food capital of Bolivia? Eat, eat, eat and drink. So that’s what we did and we recommend it too. So many restaurants to choose from it’s hard to pick where to go. So here's our top four.
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The coffee is great and it’s a good hub to sit and work if you need to.
The food is exceptional and they have great offers on with huge burgers costing 27Bs (£3) or T-bone steaks at half price.
We stumbled across this and it seemed to be a place for university students and we now know why. The drinks are Cheap, like SE Asia cheap. A jug of very strong Caipirinha cost 25Bs (£3) and some cocktails are 2 for 15Bs (£1.70), if we didn't have reservations at Paprika we would of stayed all night.
A 20 minute walk from Lyra across the river it’s a large open spaced bar and a good place to chill out in the day or a have late night party with a large state and live music. When we visited there was a private Cacha tournament on sponsored by Casa Real Singani. The brand manager came over to us and invited us in, the best thing…. It was free bar and free food! Free Chuflays all around we also learnt how to play Cacha, a popular Bolivian dice game. We were then introduced to the owner of the bar who gave us free wristbands for that nights entertainment.. a popular Reggaeton singer. Considering we were the only tourists there all afternoon and night we felt so welcome and it was a brilliant night.. we definitely felt it the next morning.
